(Credit:
Panasonic)
Panasonic has created a robotic bed that can transform into a wheelchair, allowing the elderly or people with disabilities to get up without assistance.
Users can remain in the bed while it turns into a wheelchair. Half of the mattress rises and half lowers while a motorized unit beneath it automatically slides out from the bed.
While in chair mode, the robot can detect people and obstacles and help users avoid collisions, according to Panasonic.
A controller allows for driving and returning to the bed.
The mattress can also help people turn over in bed to prevent bedsores.
The bed's robotic canopy automatically rises when the unit transforms. It has a screen that acts as TV, controller for home appliances, and home security camera viewer.
The bed is one of many new mobility solutions to help the aging Japanese population stay mobile.
They include Rodem, an ergonomic electric wheelchair, Toyota's thought-controlled wheelchair, and the Hybrid Assistive Limb, a robotic power suit.
And let's not forget Riba, the giant teddy bear robotic nurse that can lift a person from a bed and deposit him or her into a wheelchair.
I think the next logical step in this Japanese arc of invention is the creation of a giant teddy bear bed that transforms into a thought-controlled wheelchair.
Panasonic will show off its prototype Robotic Bed later this month at the International Home Care & Rehabilitation Exhibition 2009 in Tokyo.
(Via Digital World Tokyo)
(Credit:
Cyberdyne)
This is about the closest thing to a Superman suit we've seen. Put it on, say its creators, and the motorized Hybrid Assistive Limb can "expand and improve physical capability" up to tenfold in activities such as walking, standing, and climbing stairs.
Through a sensor attached to the skin, "HAL" captures faint biosignals on the skin's surface that result from messages sent from the brain to muscles when a person attempts to move. A computer analyzes how much power the wearer intends to generate, then calculates the amount of torque needed to put limbs into action.
(Credit:
Cyberdyne)
Especially noteworthy here is that the suit responds to intended motion, rather than actual motion.
"This is what we call a 'voluntary control system' that provides movement interpreting the wearer's intention from the biosignals in advance of the actual movement," explains Japan's Cyberdyne, which will soon begin manufacturing the cybernetic suits for about $4,200 apiece, possibly making it the first such wearable device aimed at civilians.
The company was formed by Sankai Yoshiyuki, a professor at the University of Tsukuba who is heading up research on HAL, which he says has the advantages of both robot and cyborg. Yoshiyuki says he was inspired by reading Isaac Asimov's "I Robot" as a child.
... Read more
(Credit:
HSN Improvements)
Maybe we've seen too many bad sci-fi movies, but the thought of a gadget that talks to us is a little unnerving--especially if it involves our physical well-being. We suppose that the intentions are good, given that it's about exercise and all, but the last thing we need is some mechanical voice assessing our performance. Even if it is a "pleasant female" one, as GadgetGrid says.
Aside from that, the "Talking Digital Hand Grip" is just an updated version of the old squeeze strengtheners you can still find lying around gyms and hall closets everywhere. Other than HAL-like voice, its features include controls for various tension levels and a small LCD screen that shows your results.
But we already have another gadget in mind to converse with, one that involves much less strenuous activity: the talking barbecue thermometer.
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